The Best Products Of 2009

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In fact, for the information technology industry and the channel, 2009 saw significant and game-changing products hit the market -- products that should lead the charge into what's expected to be a notable refresh cycle in 2010.

From the most powerful, industry-standard CPU that we've ever seen to Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system (a product that many believe should have been introduced instead of Windows Vista three years ago), technology companies delivered the goods. The duo of multicore processing and virtualization altered the data center landscape in the most dramatic fashion since IBM phased out punch cards. Security aggressively kept ahead of the bad guys. Stuff just worked.

Amid a backdrop of the worst economic conditions in a lifetime, selecting 2009's Products of the Year was a challenging -- and rewarding -- task.